ANAHEIM, Calif. — The legend of Mike Trout just keeps on growing.
Trout hit a game-tying grand slam in the bottom of the eighth, Josh Hamilton had three hits and scored the go-ahead run, and the Los Angeles Angels erased a five-run deficit to beat the Chicago White Sox 6-5 Saturday night.
"We needed a victory like this," Trout said. "We never stopped fighting, had great at-bats, put some things together and we came out and got the W."
Chicago starter Chris Sale took a three-hit shutout into the eighth and the White Sox held a commanding 5-0 lead.
Erick Aybar led off the eighth with a double and scored on Chris Iannetta's single, and after an error and another single loaded the bases, Trout hit a full-count changeup over the left-center field fence to tie it.
Aybar stroked a two-out RBI single later in the inning, and Ernesto Frieri closed it out for the Angels.
The grand slam was Trout's only hit of the game. He has a hit in 14 of his last 15 games and has reached base in 26 of his last 27.
"I was just (using a) two-strike approach," he said. "I wasn't trying to hit a home run, but it went out. The first two swings I was thinking home run, that's why I fouled them off. You try to get too big in situations you lose mechanics of your swing. That 3-2 pitch I just told myself to stay up the middle and put the ball in play."
Sale was all but unhittable for the first seven innings. The 25-year-old left-hander didn't allow an Angels runner past second base to that point and appeared firmly in control.
The Angels finally figured him out in the eighth. After Aybar doubled and scored on Iannetta's single, Colin Cowgill reached on an error by shortstop Alexi Ramirez.
Howie Kendrick poked a single through the right side to bring Trout up with the bases loaded and no outs, and the Angels outfielder belted the tying homer to whip the home crowd into a frenzy.
"I don't really remember much from it," Sale said. "I just remember that ball going over the fence and wanting to rip my own head off.
"That's why he's the best in the league. I can't really say too much about a guy like that hitting a home run off of you."
Trout's blast, his 12th homer of the season, ended Sale's night. The Angels weren't done.
Hamilton and C.J. Cron hit back-to-back two-out singles off reliever Jake Petricka (0-1), and Aybar poked a 2-2 fastball into center field to score Hamilton and give the Angels their first lead of the game.
"When you put as much effort, and kind of your heart and soul into a game and it unravels like that, more than anything I'm just kind of disappointed," Sale said. "I threw a good pitch to a better hitter, and things happen."